<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta content="App Inventor for Android" name="description">
    <meta content="Android, Blocks App Inventor, Mobile, Phone, IDE" name="keywords">
    <title>
      Emulator - App Inventor for Android
    </title>
    <link href="/static/images/appinventor-16.png" rel="SHORTCUT ICON" type="image/ico">
    <link href="/static/images/appinventor-16.png" rel="icon" type="image/png">
    <link href="/static/css/appinventor.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="http://www.google.com/js/gweb/analytics/autotrack.js">
</script>
    <script>
  var tracker = new gweb.analytics.AutoTrack({
        profile: 'UA-5856106-2'
      });
    </script>
    <style>
img.c2 {border-width:0}
    div.c1 {clear:both;}
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="aiac">
      <div class="main-container">
        <div class="header">
          <div class="header-title">
            <a href="/about/"><img alt="" src="/static/images/appinventor_logo.gif"></a>
          </div>
          <form action="http://www.google.com/cse" id="cse-search-box">
            <input name="cx" type="hidden" value="011848991959401852367:xnrcbhk2zus"> <input name=
            "ie" type="hidden" value="UTF-8">
            <div class="header-search">
              <div class="header-search-query">
                <input class="textbox" name="q" type="text">
              </div>
              <div class="header-search-button">
                <input name="sa" src="/static/images/search-button.png" type="image">
              </div>
            </div>
          </form><script src="http://www.google.com/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&amp;lang=en"
         >
</script>
          <div class="header-login">
            <div class="header-login-greeting">
              Learn about App Inventor
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class="customhr customhr-green"></div>
        <div id="navigation">
          <div id="navigation-links">
            <div class="navigation-link-option" id="navigation-link-home">
              <a href="/about/">About</a>
            </div>
            <div class="navigation-link-option navigation-link-active" id="navigation-link-learn">
              <a href="/learn/">Learn</a>
            </div>
            <div class="navigation-link-option" id="navigation-link-forum">
              <a href="/forum/">Forum</a>
            </div>
            <div class="navigation-link-option" id="navigation-link-myappinventor">
              <a href="http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/ode/Ya.html" target="_blank">My
              Projects</a>
            </div>
          </div>
          <div id="navigation-breadcrumb">
            <a href="/learn/">Learn</a> &gt; <a href="/learn/reference/">Reference</a> &gt;
            Emulator &gt;
          </div>
          <div class="c1"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="customhr customhr-gray"></div>
        <div class="content">
          <div class="content-body">
            <div class="learn-page">
              <h1>
                Building Apps with the Emulator
              </h1>
              <p>
                App Inventor includes an emulator for the phone. The emulator lets you develop and
                test apps using a virtual phone instead of a real phone. Instead of connecting a
                phone to the USB port, just start the emulator program. When you click <span class=
                "ButtonText">Connect to Phone</span> in the Blocks Editor, your app will appear in
                the emulator.
              </p>
              <p>
                You can't do everything with the emulator that you can with a real phone — you
                can't shake it, for example, and the emulator can't make or recieve phone calls —
                but you can use the emulator to create apps and test them, and install them on a
                phone later if you like.
              </p>
              <h2>
                Starting the Emulator
              </h2>
              <p>
                You don't need to download any additional software to use the emulator. It was
                included with the software you already downloaded as part of the App Inventor
                Extras Package. Navigate to the directory where the App Inventor Extras software
                was installed, locate the folder called commands-for-appinventor and run the
                command<br>
                <code>run-emulator</code>
              </p>
              <p>
                Be patient: The emulator takes a long time to start, even a minute or more. That's
                because it's booting up the virtual phone from scratch.
              </p>
              <p>
                The emulator will appear in its own window on your computer. As you work, you'll
                need to switch among the emulator window, the Blocks Editor, and the Designer.
              </p>
              <p>
                Don't connect a physical phone to the computer while you're using the emulator, or
                App Inventor will become confused.
              </p>
              <h2>
                App Development with the Emulator
              </h2>
              <p>
                Start the emulator and use App Inventor just as you would with a real phone:
                connect to the App Inventor site, start the Blocks Editor, and press <span class=
                "ButtonText">Connect to Phone</span>. Your application should appear in the
                emulator. Don't forget to "unlock" the virtual phone after it starts up.
              </p>
              <p>
                When your app is finished, you can download it to your computer just as you would
                if you'd been developing on a real phone.
              </p>
              <blockquote class="notice">
                <b>Tips:</b> The emulator provided with App Inventor is the standard Android
                emulator. You can learn more about it from the <a href=
                "http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/emulator.html">Android
                Emulator</a> section of the <em>Android Developer's Guide</em>. For example, you
                might want to download and install a different "skin" to make the virtual phone
                look different from the default that App Inventor uses.
              </blockquote>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class="footer">
          <div class="footer-legal">
            <p>
              <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="license"><img alt=
              "Creative Commons License" class="c2" src=
              "http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/88x31.png"></a><br>
              This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
              rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a> .
            </p>
            <p>
              ©2011 Google<br>
              <a href="/about/index.html">About</a> | <a href="/about/privacy.html">Privacy</a> |
              <a href="/about/termsofservice.html">Terms</a>
            </p>
          </div>
          <div class="footer-lastupdate">
            <script>
  if (document.lastModified != '') {
                var m = "Page last updated: " + document.lastModified;
                var p = m.length-8;
                document.writeln("<center>");
                document.write(m.substring(p, 0));
                document.writeln("<\/center>");
              }
            </script>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>